It feels like...

[venta]

OK, yes, that was just a facetious entry because I suddenly found the phrase "straw poll" funny this morning. However, it has just reminded me of something I did want to ask about.

How many of you have ever heard of a "spikey" ? As in a small plastic thingy which might be given out free in pubs ?

This website explains what a spikey is. Have you seen these anywhere ?

I was shown one at the weekend by someone who'd picked it up in a bar in Preston - a huge bucket of them apparently stood on the bar, inviting people to help themselves. He questioned the bar staff as to what on earth they were (a small, plastic plug you put into the top of a bottle, with a hole for a straw, which prevents anyone dropping anything into your drink). When he later handed it to me to invite me to guess what it was, I failed utterly.

Stuart asked, in surprise, if this was really necessary, was drink-spiking so prevalent that it needed this kind of precaution ? Yes, apparently. "Everyone" in Preston knows someone to whom it's happened.

Now, I'm a bit sceptical - I'm prepared to believe there's a perceived threat, but is it really so widespread ? Richard, who lives in Wakefield, confirmed to me that it is apparently rife there, too, with many cases reported.

Are you aware of it being a particular threat in your area ? I mean yes, it's a risk, and it pays to keep an eye on your drink and make sure that someone will notice if you're acting funny or disappear. But the idea that a plastic stopper is necessary to stop someone dropping Rohypnol into your beer is a new one on me.

I'm also told that the reason bottled drinks are so popular these days is that they're harder to spike. Have I been living with my head in a bucket and missing all this ?

Should Pintwatch start campaigning for pint-glass-sized coloured stoppers ? Preferably with a hot-coffee-style sipping mechanism. Not a straw. Blech.

Comments

[neilh.livejournal.com]

In the same way as most bank notes in this country have traces of cocaine? That was traced to the counting machines they use in banks which pick up dust from those few notes which are used for such purposes.

[lathany.livejournal.com]

Only if they had those drugs in the washing up liquid/sink area/water. And, frankly, that's not likely. Unless you have an alternative idea about how the drugs could get into the glasses?

I think that if this is a biased sample it's because of the pubs chosen.

[lathany.livejournal.com]

I should add that I'm dissing the washing up theory because pubs usually use dishwashers and they usually have more than one rinse cycle.

[zotz]

A lot of pubs have those swirly tubs with the spinning brush. Or used to, anyway.

[zotz]

It's possible. OTOH that implies, given that people likely had more than one drink each, that at least half the people there had their drinks spiked on one given evening. I would find that hard to believe.

One notable point is that glasses are washed quickly in machines behind the bars - one glass could contaminate quite a few which follow it into the same water, if the test used was sensitive enough. It's hard to say without knowing more.

[lathany.livejournal.com]

one glass could contaminate quite a few which follow it into the same water

Only if the rinse cycle was inadequate. Although, I'll admit I'm no expert on pub dishwashers.

[zotz]

I know some pubs have dishwashers which work like domestic ones, but others do/did have a glasswasher with a tub of swirling water and a rotating brush in the middle. Like this, sort of. It's easier to imagine contamination with something like that, but I don't know how common they are now.

[timeplease.livejournal.com]

Pub glasswashers generally only have a short rinse cycle. They are optimised for speed rather than cleaning ability, and they make the glasses hygienic by rinsing at high temperature. They are unable to deal with glasses that are greasy, for example: butter, lipstick (ugh!), and so on.

We have another dishwasher (with a longer cycle) that we use for plates. When we notice a particularly dirty glass we run it through that instead.

(A pub glasswasher has a bath of water with detergent that's kept at about 55C. A wash cycle has two parts: first the water with detergent is sprayed over the glasses to try to get them clean. At the same time the rinse water is being heated to about 80C. The rinse cycle involves spraying the rinse water mixed with rinse aid over the glasses. The rinse water ends up in the water bath; the excess flows down the drain and more detergent is added.)

[neilh.livejournal.com]

No, I don't have any ideas, really, just thinking that there was an outcry over the cocaine/banknote thing until they traced the source. The other possibility is that they chose somewhere where it was the popular thing to do to drop your drug of choice into your drink - which would make it some kind of self-spiking thing, which surely doesn't count. And noone is going to admit that to a policeman, are they?

Were they just picking up trace or was it serious amounts?